It's been an incredible week! David got baptized!! Man. That was so awesome. I'll write more about it later. But first, we saw Gladys Knight at a huge fireside last week! It was insaaaaaane! For those of you who don't know who Gladys Knight is, she is a Motown artist most well known for her group, Gladys Knight and the Pips. Known as the Empress of Soul, she converted to the church in the 90's!! She came and had a fireside with the Saints United Voices choir and it was insane! Technically it was out of the mission, but our zone got invited, so we were the only ones from the mission that got to go! It was awesome, and the spirit was powerful. Gladys bore her testimony about the restoration and the church, and nearly half of the people there were not members! It generated tons of referrals for our zone and for the surrounding areas. It was awesome. The show didn't start until 9:!5 though, and then the Sister's car battery was dead, so we had to go give them a jump start, so we didn't get home to Tustin until like 12! Good times. Next up, we had interviews with President Taggart this last week too. I love every time I get to meet with president. He gave me such great counsel, and I always feel so uplifted. We read through Thomas S Monson's talk in last conference and we replaced every time he says, "may we" to "will you" to get the commitments from the prophet. One that meant the most to me, with it changed, says, "Will you always choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong?" Latter-Day prophets are number one! So about Dave's baptism! It went perfectly! The spirit was so powerful. Even before the baptism, Dave was just so happy, he kept on saying, "I can't stop smiling. My cheeks are starting to hurt." Hahaha you should've seen him after! He was glowing! The next day at church, I was able to perform the confirmation and give him the Holy Ghost. We got back to the pew and the spirit overcame him and he began to weep. It was so amazing. Several times throughout the meeting, particularly when the speakers were bearing their testimonies, Dave would just get emotional and start crying. "I can feel it" he kept saying over and over again. I am so grateful for priesthood power, which allows us to experience the fullness of the blessings of the gospel. I love being a missionary! Thanks so much for all you do everyone! I appreciate your prayers and support. Have a fantastic week! I love you all!
Hello everyone, it has been a beautiful week here in sunny SoCal! The weather was perfect and I got to spend a lot of time outside, so that was nice. I have the coolest tan line halfway down my neck, thanks to the collar on my white shirt! So every Pday I always get some comments on it haha. The work is going great! David is still on for baptism, but due to an activity that the Ward is having on the 30th, we had to move it... To April 23!!! So Dave is getting baptize this weekend, and we couldn't be more excited for him. He has had a rough life and has overcome many hardships to get him where he is now. The Lord has prepared him throughout his life for this time, and it has just been so amazing to see him accept it so wholeheartedly. Dave is awesome. I also had the chance to go on an exchange with one of my good friends, Elder Pruitt. We came out together, and he is 25, so I call him grandpa and tease him about his arthritic hands and weak joints and bad hip. We had an awesome day together, where we spent the first few hours of it uprooting banana tree stumps for a less active in their ward, and the rest of it biking around the city of Orange! We
had some neat experiences and we were able to talk with a lot of people. Overall, it was an awesome exchange. We had a cool experience with a less active this week that we have been trying to visit for months. Her name is Roxanne, and we had a short lesson where we showed her President Monson's talk from conference titled, "Choices". It is only 5 minutes long and is perfect for lessons! After it finished, Roxanne started crying and told us how much the video meant to her. She said that she has been struggling a lot lately with which path to take in life, and the words of our living prophet touched her heart and the spirit told her what what path she needs to choose. As President Monson said, "As we contemplate the decisions we make in our lives each day--whether to make this choice or that choice--if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice." Modern day prophets are the best! Today we also got to go on a super fun and super long hike, which is why my emails are coming out so late. I've really missed not being able to be out in nature as much, so the hike was awesome! Thanks for reading everyone, have a fantastic week! Love ya!
-Elder Francis
Elder Hackman and I, black star canyon, and the view from the top!
It's been an incredible week! We got to go on three exchanges, and they were all sooo awesome! First, Elder Luu! With Elder Luu we had planned to go and set up a table at two local colleges with the sisters and contact college students. As it turns out, we had been misinformed and the first college was on spring break! It only took a few minutes of sitting at our table on the deserted campus to realize something was wrong. We had a great conversation about the gospel with the security guard who came to kick us off campus though so it turned out okay! We decided to just head over to the other campus and contact people there a bit longer. But when we got there we learned there was an event and we weren't allowed to set up our table! So we got to do some awesome on-the-spot finding for a couple hours! It ended up being a great exchange! Second, we went on exchanges with the two assistants to the president, Elder Cottle and Elder Pratt. Man, that was so awesome! I love being around the assistants and president Taggart so much. I seem to learn so much every time I interact with them haha. This exchange in particular really inspired me to be more organized and structured in my work, and I've already seen some incredible blessings come as I've implemented their counsel and followed their example. I hope I can be that example for other missionaries someday. And lastly, I went on an exchange with my good friend Elder Cromar! He is actually from Rexburg, and graduated from Madison High School the same year as me! They are on bike, and I went to their area for the day. They say you never forget how to ride your bike, but I am a living witness against that statement! The first half of the day I said probably 20-30 prayers that I wouldn't crash on the side of the road and get run over. I am also a living witness that the Lord answers prayers! Elder Cromar and I made the goal to talk with every single person we saw, and talk we did! By the end of the day we had talked to 70 people! It was awesome, and although I was totally wiped at the end of the day, it was one of the best exchanges of my mission. As far as our area is concerned, the work is going great and we are continuing to have small successes and miracles in our finding and teaching. David is one of those. And so is Carlos. They both came to church yesterday and have both been making a lot of progress. We hope to see them both baptized in the coming months! Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support and love! I appreciate them more than you know. If you ever want to write me I'll leave my address at the bottom! Have a fantastic week everyone! -Elder Francis 2500 N Bristol St Santa Ana, CA 92706 Idaho brothers!!! Elder Cromar and me
Before you go accusing me of blatant disobedience for emailing on a Wednesday, let me explain myself.... We went to the temple this morning! And man was it amazing!! Because of that, our Pday is today. Also, happy birthday to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! On this day 186 years ago, the prophet Joseph organized and established the church under the direction of Jesus Christ, with as little as 6 baptized members present. Today, membership in the church has surpassed 15.6 million and has touched the lives of God's children all around the world, as evidenced by the incredible general conference we had last weekend! The temple today was especially enlightening! My recent studies of the creation, fall and atonement really helped me understand and learn a lot of things that I had never realized or picked up on before! In short, the temple is amazing. I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have to go to the temple every three months. It's so beautiful, and the spirit inside is so powerful! I love it so much. The past week and a half since I last wrote have been sooo awesome! We have still been teaching David, and we might have to move his baptismal date up! He is on date now for April 30th, but has been to church twice already, is in Mosiah in his Book of Mormon reading, and still really wants to be baptized! We are meeting with him again tonight! Last time we met with him, he said, "Growing up I never really bought in to the bible. I liked it in my youth, but as I got older I fell away from it because I couldn't really understand it." Then he lifted up his Bible, "but now, this makes sense to me," then lifted up his Book of Mormon, "because of this." He told us how hungry he is to learn more. We are so excited for him!!! Thanks so much to everyone for all that you do! I love you all! Have a fantastic four days!
